Rotatable dispenser for precut lengths of wire

ABSTRACT

A rotatable dispenser for lengths of wire used in the manufacture of electronic or electrical equipment. The dispenser includes a holder comprising a pair of discs spaced apart by a perpendicular circumferential wall preferably either integral with or permanently secured to one of the discs. When the other of the discs is set aside, precut lengths of wire may be loaded in bundles into the cavity defined by the first disc and the circumferential wall. Each bundle is loaded with one end of each of its wires protruding through a dispensing opening formed in the circumferential wall. With the second disc in place, the holder is rotatably mounted on a work bench mount or a floor mount adjacent a work bench. Each dispensing opening in the circumferential wall would preferably be labeled with the type and length of wire so that a worker could easily select each individual wire as he needs it.

United States Patent Lit et al.

ROTATABLE DISPENSER FOR PRECUT LENGTHS OF WIRE Harry B. Lit, Peabody; James H. Hosker, Danvers, both of Mass.

Inventors:

Assignee: General Electric Company Filed: Feb. 25, 1970 Appl. No.2 14,037

US. Cl. ..211/70, 211/164, 242/552, 312/73 Int. Cl. ..A47f 7/00, A47f 13/04 Field ofSearch.....21l/70, 49 D, 49 S, 164, 163, 21l/60,13, 61, 67, 89; 221/34, 307; 312/73,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1960 Adams ..2ll/89X 11/1963 Scibelli..; ..312/111UX DeCaccia .21 l/60 X Horecki ..211/49 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Great Britain..., ..211/60 McJunkin ..312/73v [451' Sept. 26, 1972 222,299 5/1910 Germany..', ..-.....312/73 Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier 9 4 Assistant Examiner-Abraham Frankel Attorney-William S. Wolfe, Frank L. Neuhauser,

Oscar B. Waddell and Joseph B. Forman [57] ABSTRACT A rotatable dispenser for lengths of wire used in the manufacture of electronic or electrical equipment. The dispenser includes a holder comprising a pair of discs spaced apart by a perpendicular circumferential wall preferably either integral with or permanently secured to one of the discs. When the other of the discs, is set aside, precut lengths of wire may be loaded in bundles into the cavity defined by the first disc and the circumferential wall. Each bundle is loaded with one end of each of its wires protruding through a dispensing opening formed in the circumferential wall. With the second disc in place, the holder is rotatably mounted on a work bench mount or a floor mount adjacent a work bench. Each dispensing opening in the circumferential wall would preferably be labeled with the type and length of .wire so that a worker could easily select each individual wire as he needs it.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 4 PATENTEDSEPZB I912 3,693,806

SHEET 1 BF 2 INVENTORS JAMES H. HOSKER, HARRY B. LIT,

BY QM R- m THEIR ATTORNEY.

PATENTEDszrzs m2 0 3.6 93. 8 O6 sum 2 BF 2 INVENTORSZ JAMES H. HOSKER, HARRY-B. LIT,

BY sw R.\-.AA b

THEIR ATTORNEY.

ROTATABLE DISPENSER FOR PRECUT LENGTIIS OF WIRE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to dispensers and more particularly to a rotatable dispenser for storing precut lengths of wire for use in the manufacture of electronic or electrical equipment.

In manufacturing electronic or electrical equipment, it is an established industry practice to cut and strip lengths of wire at a central cut station. The wires are then bundled and carted to' assembly stations where the wires are installed either directly in the equipment being manufactured or in wire harnesses, bundles of wire leads which are installed as units in the equipment being manufactured. Since the precut lengths of wire are brought in bundles to the assembly station but are installed individually, a dispenser must be provided for storing the wires at the station prior to their use.

A suitable dispenser may be defined as one which stores the numbers and types of wires needed for a particular assembly operation, and which permits a worker to easily reach all wires in the dispenser and to easily distinguish one type of wire from another. A suitable dispenser may be further defined as one which requires a minimum amount of space at an assembly station, which protects the ends of wires from damage and which minimizes tangling of wires when an individual wire is withdrawn.

There are several different types of dispensers in use. Among the simplest of these are the type in which wires are merely draped across pegs or longer rods. While this type is inexpensive and easy to fabricate, it has several drawbacks. Wires draped near the end of a long rod or on lower pegs are more difficult for a worker to reach. When an attempt is made to extract a single wire from this type of dispenser, other wires are sometimes dragged from their place on the dispenser which can result in a jumbled pile of wires at the foot of the dispenser unless the worker takes the time and trouble to replace each inadvertently removed wire. A further disadvantage of this type of dispenser is that it cannot be used for short wires and does not protect the wires from dust or damage. Another type of dispenser in use consists of parallel troughs into which different kinds of wires may be loaded. One of the major disadvantages of this type of dispenser is that not all troughs can be positioned within easy reach of a worker. Except for a few of the nearest troughs, a worker has to feel blindly for the wires he wishes to extract. Due to their simplicity, dispensers made of troughs, pegs or rods are generally homemade devices fabricated by the manufacturer of the electrical or electronic equipment.

More sophisticated dispensers are available. Among these are dispensers in which wires are stored in vertical tubes grouped somewhat like the pipes in a pipe organ and having dispensing openings near the bottom of each tube. The maximum length of wires that may be stored in the tubes is generally limited by the length of the individual storage tubes while the minimum length is limited by the fact that shorter wires tend to fall out of the tubes.

Another type of commercially available dispenser is a wire-formed rectangular rack with dispenser slots on one side. Rectangular racks are bulky, taking up as much as 25 percent of the available work surface area on a typical workbench, and do not allow an operator to reach all stored wires with equal ease.

Each of the dispensers mentioned above has an additional significant disadvantage. The capacity of each is limited both in the number of different types and and in the total number of wires which can be stored. Because of the complexity of electrical or electronic equipment being manufactured today, the required wires and types of wires often exceed the capacities of the prior art dispensers described. The capacity of some types of the prior art dispensers may, of course, be increased by grouping several units. However, the groupings require a considerable amount of assembly station space and often must be located at least partly beyond an operator's convenient reaching distance.

SUMMARY The present invention is a rotatable dispenser for precut lengths of wire or other elongated materials which has a large capacity for different kinds of material, requires a minimum amount of assembly station space, provides equal access to all stored lengths, permits extraction of a single length of material without tangling, and provides protection for lengths of material. Dispensers constructed in accordance with the present invention are inexpensive and easily grouped to provide different dispensing arrangements which meet the requirements of different types of assembly operations.

A rotatable dispenser constructed in accordance with the present invention includes a canister-type holder with one or more openings in a circumferential wall. Precut lengths of material are loaded into the holder with one end of each length protruding through an opening in the circumferential wall. The holder is rotatably mounted on a suitable support at an assembly station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming that which is regarded as the present invention, certain details of preferred embodiments of the invention'may be more readily ascertained from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembled dispenser mounted at an assembly station workbench;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the basic components of the dispenser of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway elevation of one sector of a dispenser showing certain internal components not depicted in FIGS. 1 or 2; and

FIG. 4 is an edge view of a pair of holders mounted on a single support to provide increased wire dispensing capacity.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to FIG. 1, a dispenser constructed in accordance with the present invention includes a canister-type holder 8 which may have first and second discs 10 and 12 spaced from one another by an intermediate circumferential wall 14 having a plurality of openings, such as opening 16, providing access to the cavity defined by discs 10 and 12 and circumferential wall 14. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the diameters of the discs 10 and 12 are greater than the diameter of the circumferential wall 14, providing Wire-protecting flanges. Also in a preferred embodiment, the circumferential wall 14 is either integral with or permanently attached to one of the discs while the other of the discs is removable. For purposes of illustration, it will be assumed that the circumferential wall 14 is attached permanently to disc 10.

With disc 12 removed, bundles of precut lengths of wire are loaded into the cavity defined by disc 10 and circumferential wall 14 with one end of each wire protruding through one of the circumferential openings 16. Loaded wires are held in place in the chamber by securing the second disc 12 to the first disc 10 by means of an internal threaded arrangement to be described later in connection with FIG. 2. The assembled holder 8'may be, mounted in any number of ways, either on a workbench 18, or beside the workbench on a suitable floor mount. For purposes of illustration, the holder 8 is shown as being rotatably supported on an inverted L-shaped rod 20 removably clamped to one edge of the workbench 18 by a C clamp 22. The horizontal leg of rod 20 extends through aligned holes in the discs l-and 12. A conventional nut 24 threaded onto the threaded end of rod 20 completes the support assembly. The diameter of the rod 20 is less than the inner diameter of the aligned holes through discs and 12 so that the holder 8 can rotate about the axis of rod 20. Finger holes 26 or equivalent knobs can be provided in one or both of the discs 10 and 12, making it easier to rotate the dispenser to bring any wire in the holder within reach of an operator.

Basic components of the assembled dispenser shown in FIG. 1' appear in the exploded perspective view of FIG. 2. Many of the components described with reference to FIG. 1 appear again in FIG. 2 and in subsequent FIGS. 3 and 4. Where the same component appears in different figures, the same numeral is used to identify that component in each of the figures.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the holder 8 consisting basically of discs 10 and 12 and circumferential wall 14 can be assembled as a unit independently of the type of support assembly that is to be used. To this end, a hollow hub 28 is attached to the inner face of disc 10 at the center of the disc. The hub 28 includes an externally threaded segment 30 at its outer end. The disc 12 includes an internally threaded element 32 at its center. While the material forming disc 12 could itself be tapped to provide the internal threads, it is preferred to permanently secure a nut to the inside face of disc 12 to provide the internally threaded element 32. When the internally threaded element 32 is threaded onto the threaded length 30 of hub 28, the discs 10 and 12 and the circumferential wall 14 form an assembled holder. Since the holder can be assembled as a complete unit independent of its support, the same holder can be used with different types of supports to form different dispensing arrangements. Also, the holder can be taken as a unit to a central cut station at which precut lengths of wire are automatically cut and stripped. When the holder itself is loaded at the central cut station, there is no longer any need for special carts normally used to transport bundled, precut lengths of wire from the cut station to the assembly stations.

FIG. 2 is intended to illustrate only the basic components of a dispenser constructed in accordance with the present invention and does not show certain of the components which greatly facilitate use of the dispenser when certain types of wires are to be dispensed. Additional components are shown in the fragmentary sectional view of FIG. 3. The internal face of the circumferential wall 14 is normally lined with a layer 34 of resilient material such as foam rubber or polyurethane foam which includes slots 36 aligned with each of the openings 16 in the circumferential wall 14. The protruding ends of loaded wires, represented by wires 38, are forced into the slots 36. The resiliency of layer 34 restricts the movement of wires in the holder 8 to permit the extraction of a single wire at a time. The layer 34 also tends to hold the protruding ends of the wires in place as the holder 8 is rotated so that the protruding wires, regardless of how short they may be, do not fall either out of or into the cavity.

Where extremely long wires are to be dispensed, the inner ends of the wires sometimes become wrapped about the hub of the holder. To minimize the frictional drag on an extremely long wire, a bearing 39 shown only in partial cross section, is mounted on the hub 28. Also, thin internal discs or spacers (not shown) may be mounted on the hub 28 (or on bearing 39 where one is used) to minimize entanglement of the inner ends of wires. Since entanglementof wires normally occurs only near the hub of the holder, the internal discs could normally have a lesser diameter than the diameter of the circumferential wall 14.

The capacity of a holder constructed in accordance with the present invention is a function of the diameter of the circumferential wall and the distance between the plates. By adjusting these dimensions,the capacity of the holder may be varied to handle any reasonable number of wires or number of types of wires. To illustrate the adjustments in capacity which are possible, two different sizes of holders have been built. The larger of the two holders has a circumferential wall diameter of 14.5 inches, a total width of 3.75 inches, and 25 peripheral openings. It was found that this holder had a capacity of 2,000 No. 26 AWG wires, each 3 feet long. The smaller of the two holders was 12.0 inches in diameter, had a total thickness of 1.75 inches and contained 24 peripheral openings. The capacity of the smaller unit was approximately 1,000 No. 26 AWG wires, each 3 feet long.

Where a user wishes to utilize only standardized holders but finds that he requires more wire-holding capacity than a single holder can provide, two or more holders can be easily grouped to provide a dispensing arrangement with the desired capacity. FIG. 4 illustrates one of the many groupings which are possible. In that figure, a pair of identical holders 40 and 42 are rotatably supported above a workbench 18 using an inverted L-shaped rod 44 similar to the rod used in the single-holder dispenser shown in FIG. l.-The two holders are mounted on a single rod by the simple expedient of bending rod 44 to have a longer horizontal leg. Relative motion between the holders 40 and 42 is limited by a spring washer clutch 46 mounted on the rod 44 between the two holders. A second spring washer clutch 48 is mounted on the rod 44 between the first holder 40 and a stop member 50 welded to rod 44 to damp rotational movements of the combination so that the holders will remain in place as wires are individually extracted. An unlimited number of other kinds of groupings are possible. One grouping which may be preferred in many manufacturing applications would consist of a floor mount having an upper pair of holders and a lower pair of holders, all rotatably secured to the same mount. Floor mounts can easily be located so that a single dispenser serves more than one assembly station. For example, operators at adjacent assembly stations may work from opposite sides of a dispenser combination supported on a floor mount positioned between the two stations.

While there have been described what are regarded as being preferred embodiments of the invention, it

must be recognized that variations and modifications therein will occur to those skilled in the art once the invention is known to them. For example, a wire-formed serpentine ring might be used as a circumferential wall member. Similarly, the discs could be wire formed rather than being made of the sheet material shown. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims shall be construed to cover all such variations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

l. A dispenser for precut lengths of wire including:

a. a holder having a first disc with a centrally located, externally threaded, perpendicular hub with an opening therethrough, a circumferential wall perpendicular to the first disc with a plurality of peripheral openings, and a second disc with an opening therethrough having a centrally located internally threaded element, said holder being adapted to hold precut lengths of wire with one end of each length protruding through one of the peripheral openings; and

b. means for rotatably supporting said holder.

2. A dispenser as recited in claim 1 wherein said holder further includes resilient means secured to said circumferential wall adjacent the peripheral openings, said means serving to restrict movement of wires during rotation of the holder or during extraction of a single wire.

3. A dispenser as recited in claim 1 wherein said discs extend radially beyond said circumferential wall to form wire-protecting flanges.

4. A dispenser as recited in claim 2 wherein said holder further includes a bearing mounted on said hub to provide a freely rotating surface.

5. A dispenser as recited in claim 2 wherein said discs extend radially beyond said circumferential wall to form wire-protecting flanges. 

1. A dispenser for precut lengths of wire including: a. a holder having a first disc with a centrally located, externally threaded, perpendicular hub with an opening therethrough, a circumferential wall perpendicular to the first disc with a plurality of peripheral openings, and a second disc with an opening therethrough having a centrally located internally threaded element, said holder being adapted to hold precut lengths of wire with one end of each length protruding through one of the peripheral openings; and b. means for rotatably supporting said holder.
 2. A dispenser as recited in claim 1 wherein said holder further includes resilient means secured to said circumferential wall adjacent the peripheral openings, said means serving to restrict movement of wires during rotation of the holder or during extraction of a single wire.
 3. A dispenser as recited in claim 1 wherein said discs extend radially beyond said circumferential wall to form wire-protecting flanges.
 4. A dispenser as recited in claim 2 wherein said holder further includes a bearing mounted on said hub to provide a freely rotating surface.
 5. A dispenser as recited in claim 2 wherein said discs extend radially beyond said circumferential wall to form wire-protecting flanges. 